New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) fumbles the football after being hit by Miami Dolphins cornerback Nolan Carroll (28) during the first half at MetLIfe Stadium.Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE

Mark Sanchez wasn’t concerned about Nolan Carroll on a first-and-10 Sunday with 1:58 to go in the first quarter.

The Jets were driving and Sanchez had an ideal matchup: Tight end Dustin Keller lined up on Dolphins linebacker Koa Misi and a situation where, trailing only 10-0, the play-action fake could still cause a problem.

That’s when Carroll left his post near the Jets sideline on Stephen Hill and closed a distance of about 10 yards in three seconds, blasting the quarterback behind and jarring the football loose.

Sanchez’s seventh fumble of the season spilled to the turf and the Dolphins recovered, primed to add another blow.

The reason why he didn’t see it coming?

“That protection is supposed to be picked up,” Sanchez said after the loss. “So, I’m not even thinking about that stuff.”

Both Sanchez and wide receiver Chaz Schilens directed some of the blame from Sunday’s loss on the offensive line, a unit that’s been its share of peaks and valleys already this season. The Jets are 15th in the league in sacks allowed (9), but are sixth in total QB hits (18), according to Pro Football Focus. Sanchez has been hurried 52 times out of 272 attempts and the offensive line ranks 20th in pass blocking efficiency, a weighted metric that combines sacks, hits and hurries.

Amid the calls for Tim Tebow, which grew louder than ever last Sunday, it seems the offensive line is stepping up to take a portion of that blame; that maybe Sanchez’s struggles are not Sanchez’s alone.

“We have to play better,” Nick Mangold said. “I think if we play better as an offense, that (Tebow/Sanchez controversy) will quiet down a little bit…I think that’s a great thing he has going for him, but at the end of the day, we have to do better as an offense on the field.”

Schilens said that the Dolphins brought 30 different kinds of pressures on Sunday, sometimes at will during obvious passing situations, daring the Jets to throw at them.

Austin Howard, who said he’d prefer to watch the film before commenting specifically, said the Jets were prepared for all of them and that nothing came as a surprise.

He did say, though, that corner blitzes are typically a collaborative call between the offensive line and the quarterback – a slight difference from what Sanchez noted.

“I know there’s a lot of positives and a lot of negatives,” Howard said. “We win and we lose as a team. There were some good individual efforts out there but as a team we couldn’t get it done. This bye week will be huge for us.”

Although Rex Ryan said that the message during the bye was one of mental cleansing, Howard is certain that the offensive line would be adamant about working toward change.

Mangold said that the film was downloading to his iPad, queued up and ready to watch as soon as he’d finished precautionary measures to keep his family safe during hurricane Sandy.

Howard planned to watch it a few times, too, and figured he wasn’t the only one.

The hope is that next time, Sanchez won’t have to be concerned about anything and that he can stay comfortable in that feeling.

“We’ll learn from the film,” Howard said just before leaving the locker room Sunday. “See what happened out there.”